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Jack Dorsey says online harassment 'has no place on Twitter'
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey said that online harassment "has no place on Twitter."
In a Tuesday conference call following the social media company's earnings report , Dorsey explained that Twitter is "the place for news and social commentary" and that it will "never will be a platform that shows people only part of what's happening or part of what's being said."
"At its best, the nature of our platform empowers people to reach across divides and build connections to share ideas and to challenge accepted norms. As part of that, we hope — and we also recognize that it's a high hope — to elevate civil discourse," Dorsey said.
The CEO said, however, that abuse is not part of that vision.
"Abuse is not part of civil discourse. It shuts down conversation and prevents us from understanding each other. Freedom of expression means little if we allow voices to be silenced because of fear of harassment if they speak up. No one deserves to be the target of abuse online and it has no place on Twitter," Dorsey said.
He made his comments after the company deleted the account of Breitbart technology editor Milo Yiannopoloulos for allegedly tweeting abusive comments and encouraging others to do the same.
The controversial journalist's most recent campaign was directed at actress Leslie Jones, who starred in the all-female cast of the rebooted "Ghostbusters" movie. Subsequently, Jones tweeted that she was quitting the platform because of the abuse .
Dorsey said on Tuesday that the company needs to do more to prevent harassment on its platform. He added that safety is one of the company's "top five priorities for this year and recent events have only confirmed that this is truly one of the most important things for us to improve and has motivated us to improve even faster.
— CNBC's Michelle Castillo contributed to this report.
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